On Tap: Minnesota State baseball opens Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference play with a four-game series with U-Mary this weekend. The teams are scheduled to play doubleheaders at 4 p.m., on Saturday and 4 p.m. on Sunday at Minnetonka High School in Minnetonka, Minn. 

Last Time on the Diamond: The Mavericks finished an eight-game Florida trip with a 4-4 record, including an 11-3 win over Walsh in the final game of the trip on March 8 in Auburndale, Fla.    

Strong Starts: The Mavericks' starting rotation has compiled eight starts of at least five innings, including two seven-inning efforts — one each from senior right-hander Mitchell Bauer (2-0) and sophomore right-hander Jon Ludwig (1-0). Bauer leads the Minnesota State pitching staff in wins and innings pitched (15), and is third in ERA (1.20) and strikeouts (15). Ludwig is tied for first in NCAA DII with a 0.00 ERA and leads NCAA DII with a 0.44 WHIP. 

K-Machines: The Minnesota State pitching staff has tallied 88 strikeouts in 76-1/3 innings. Junior right-hander Dalton Roach (1-0) has struck out a team-high 20 batters in 11 innings for an average of 1.82 strikeouts per inning. Four other Maverick hurlers have tallied at least 10 punch-outs: junior right-hander NIck Belzer (16), senior right-hander Mitchell Bauer (15), junior southpaw Brody Rodning (14) and sophomore right-hander Jon Ludwig (10). 

Sophomore Sensation: Sophomore outfielder Jordan Hart is off to a torrid start in 2017 — leading Minnesota State in seven offensive categories: batting average (.471), hits (16), runs scored (13), triples (1), runs batted in (11), total bases (28) and slugging percentage (.824).Hart is also tied for the team lead in doubles (4) and home runs (2), and is second with a .550 on-base percentage. 

Steal Tycoons: Senior Eric Peterson leads the Mavericks with five stolen bases in 2017. Five Mavericks are tied for second with one steal each: sophomore outfielder Tyler Berg, junior infielder Luke Waldek, freshman utility player Teddy Petersen, junior outfielder Josh Wenzel and sophomore outfielder Jordan Hart. 

Record Watch: Senior infielder Eric Peterson has scored 173 runs in his Maverick playing career, which ranks third amongst student-athletes in program history. Peterson is seven runs shy of Kosuke Hattori's (2007-10), who is in second place with 180 runs scored, and nine shy of the most runs scored in program history – 182 (Eric Lonquist, 1999-2002).

Scouting U-Mary: The Marauders (4-5) enter the series with the Mavericks having won their last two games — 10-4 over Ashland and 12-7 over West Virginia Wesleyan.

U-Mary, which was picked to finish 15th in the 2017 NSIC Preseason Poll after compiling a 9-40 (7-28 NSIC) record in 2016, is paced on offense by senior catcher/pitcher Huck Lane and senior outfielder Andrew Beyer, who share the team lead in hits (10). Lane is batting .323 with a .382 on-base percentage, three runs scored, one double, three RBI and a team-high three walks. Beyer enters the weekend batting .313 with a .389 on-base percentage, six runs scored and four RBI.   

On the mound, junior right-hander Jake Johnson (2-1) leads the Marauders in wins, innings pitched (17), and strikeouts (18). Johnson is second on the team in ERA (2.12) and batting average against (.219).

Facing the Marauders: Last season, the Mavericks won 3-of-4 meetings with the Marauders in Bismarck, N.D. Minnesota State outscored U-Mary 29-15 in the four-game series.